Paper short abstract:

The aim of presentation is to analyse the case of the successive creation of modern midsummer festival in Jonava town at the very beginning of the 21st century. Conflict between the traditional and modern values and their impact on the spatial structure of the town festival will be also analysed .

Paper long abstract:

The aim of presentation is to analyse the case of the successive creation of modern midsummer festival in Jonava town at the very beginning of the 21st century when St. John's Day was officially proclaimed as the rest-day. Conflict between the traditional (rural) and modern values and their impact on the spatial structure of the town festival will be also analysed . The analysis will be based on the author's fieldwork as well as on the written scenario of the St. Johns feast and video-materials.

In 2004, the Lithuanian Midsummer feast - Joninės (St. John's Day) was officially proclaimed as the rest-day. The organizers of the public midsummer feasts meet with a serious task - to coordinate the publicly declared ethnic tradition with the requirements of the consumerist modern society. However, the ritual model of the Rasos or Kupolė feast which by years was popularized among the enthusiasts of the national folklore movement is unfit for the mass town festival. Therefore, it is a difficult task to find a compromise suitable for the national culture between the determination of the folkloristic movement to preserve the "real" rituals, the consumerist nature of the present day town community and the attempts of the businessmen to benefit maximally from the feast. The example of the successive solution can be found in the Jonava town where the organizers of the present day mass celebration of the St John's Day combine the earlier traditions and the needs of the modern consumerist society.